Multi-touch on single layer touch sensor

Abstract

A touch panel, comprising: a substrate; first sensor elements separately positioned on the substrate, wherein each of some sensor elements of the first sensor elements is surrounded by six other nearby sensor elements with the edge-adjacent-to-edge arrangement; and connecting lines arranged on the substrate wherein each of the connecting lines is connected to a corresponding sensor element of the first sensor elements.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A touch panel, comprising:
 a substrate;   first sensor elements separately positioned on the substrate, wherein at least one of the first sensor elements is surrounded by six other nearby first sensor elements with the edge-adjacent-to-edge arrangement; and   connecting lines arranged on the substrate wherein each of the connecting lines is connected to a corresponding sensor element of the first sensor elements.   
     
     
         2 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , wherein each of the first sensor elements is hexagonal. 
     
     
         3 . The touch panel of  claim 2 , wherein each of the first sensor elements is regular hexagonal. 
     
     
         4 . The touch panel of  claim 2 , further comprising second sensor elements whose shapes are halves of the first sensor elements, wherein the first sensor elements and the second sensor elements are arranged in a rectangular region, and the second sensor elements are adjacent to the edges of the rectangular region. 
     
     
         5 . The touch panel of  claim 2 , wherein each of the first sensor elements has three pairs of opposite edges, and the opposite edges of each pair are parallel. 
     
     
         6 . The touch panel of  claim 5 , wherein distance between the opposite edges of one pair of the three pairs is 9 mm to 18 mm. 
     
     
         7 . The touch panel of  claim 5 , wherein the three pairs have different distances between the opposite edges. 
     
     
         8 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a plastic substrate or glass substrate. 
     
     
         9 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , wherein material of the first sensor elements is indium tin oxide. 
     
     
         10 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , wherein the first sensor elements are arranged to form a honeycomb sensor array. 
     
     
         11 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , further comprising a cover lens positioned over the first sensor elements. 
     
     
         12 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , further comprising a control circuit positioned on a circuit board. 
     
     
         13 . The touch panel of  claim 12 , wherein the circuit board is Printing Circuit Board or Flexible Printing Circuit Board. 
     
     
         14 . The touch panel of  claim 11 , wherein each of the first sensor elements is smaller than two fingertips. 
     
     
         15 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , wherein each of the first sensor elements is rectangular shape and surrounded by six sensor elements of the first sensor elements. 
     
     
         16 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , wherein material of the connecting lines is indium tin oxide. 
     
     
         17 . The touch panel of  claim 4 , wherein material of the second sensor elements is indium tin oxide. 
     
     
         18 . The touch panel of  claim 4 , wherein the first sensor elements, the connecting lines and the second sensor elements are formed in the same processes. 
     
     
         19 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , wherein variation of capacitance value of the touch panel is resulted from fingertip or stylus contacting the touch panel. 
     
     
         20 . The touch panel of  claim 1 , wherein variation of capacitance value of the touch panel is resulted from approaching of fingertip or stylus without the fingertip or the stylus contacting the touch panel.